The ''lāruǎn'' ( 拉阮; also spelled ''la ruan'') is a relatively new Chinese

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the s ...

blending the acoustics of the ''

ruan Ruan may refer to: Buildings * Ruan Center, office building in Des Moines, Iowa * John Ruan House, historic mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, t ...

'' with that of the Western

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, ...

. Its larger counterpart is the ''dalaruan'' (大拉阮), which corresponds to the

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

. The instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body like ruan, with neck no frets but bowed by horsehair bow These

musical instruments A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

were created in the 20th century to be an alternative to other bowed bass register instruments used in Chinese orchestras, such as '' dihu'', cello/double bass, '' gehu''/'' diyingehu'', ''damatouqin''/''dimatouqin'', and ''

paqin The ''paqin'' ( 琶琴) is a modern bowed lute originating in China. The instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body like pipa, with neck no frets but bowed by horsehair bow. It has a bass variant, the '' dapaqin'' and a alto variant is the ''xiao ...

''/''dapaqin''. The China National Traditional Orchestra of Beijing is one of the few Chinese orchestras using this instrument.

References

Chinese musical instruments Necked lutes {{China-music-stub

See also

References